Tectus Boss Guide

Video Tactics

Icy Vein Tacts

Fatboss Tacts

Overview

The central theme of the fight is that, when killed, Tectus splits up into two copies of himself, which have identical abilities to Tectus.

Then, when these copies of Tectus are killed, they each split up into 4 copies, again with almost identical abilities, which must also be killed.

When Tectus reaches 0% health, he splits up into two Shards of Tectus.

When a Shard of Tectus is killed, it splits up into 4 Motes of Tectus.

When all Motes of Tectus are killed, the encounter is over.

The Shards of Tectus each have less health and deal less melee damage than Tectus, and the Motes of Tectus have less health and deal less melee damage than the Shards of Tectus.

Tectus and his copies use a series of rather simple abilities against your raid. The most peculiar one is that Tectus and the Shards of Tectus are typically unkillable, and can only be finished off at specific times in the encounter. If your raid fails get the kill in that window, you will have to wait for a new one.

During the first phase of the fight (before Tectus splits), you will also have to face a number of adds.

Tactics

Tanks

During Phase One

Tank Tectus and the Night-Twisted adds around the center of the fighting area. Pay attention to tank theNight-Twisted Earthwarpers facing away from other players.

During Phase Twotank the Shards of Tectus (one Shard per tank) and do not keep them too close to one another.

During Phase Three, have one tank on the remaining Shard of Tectus, while the other tank tanks the 4 Motes of Tectus together (and still away from the Shard of Tectus).

Healers

Pay special attention to when the boss or one of his copies casts Tectonic Upheaval, since this does massive raid-wide damage. In particular, watch out for moments when two or more Tectonic Upheaval casts happen at the same time.

During Phases Two and Three, pay special attention to the tank who is tanking a Shard of Tectus with many stacks of Accretion.

Strategy

The first thing you will notice is that Tectus does not have a mechanic that requires a tank switch. This is because, in later phases of the fight, both tanks will be needed in order to tank the multiple Shards and Motes of Tectus. In any case, there is something for the second tank to do during Phase One as well, since they will have to tank theNight-Twisted Earthwarpers and the Night-Twisted Berserkers.

The strategy for Phase One is not complicated. We will summarise it before going into more detail below.

Have Tectus tanked in the middle of the fighting area.

Have ranged DPS players and healers stand as close to the walls of the fighting area as possible. This will attract all Earthen Pillars to them, leaving the rest of the area clear.

When Earthen Pillar or Fracture is cast, make sure all raid members move out of the affected area.

Players who are targeted by Crystalline Barrage will have to kite the cloud away from other raid members, ideally close to the edge of the fighting area.

Have your tanks pick up the Night-Twisted Earthwarpers and the Night-Twisted Berserkers. The Earthwarpers must be killed quickly, and tanked facing away from other players.

Have the tank not currently tanking Tectus, or a raid member with strong damage reduction cooldowns intercept Gift of Earth void zones before they reach Tectus.

During Tectonic Upheaval you must finish Tectus off, and your healers will have to be prepared for the high raid-wide damage that Tectonic Upheaval does.

Tanking Concerns

During Phase One, your tanks will have two main concerns. The first is to tank Tectus himself. Normally, this will not be a problem. Tectus does not cast any abilities on his tank, so all there is to worry about are his melee attacks. When the raid's DPS is focused on adds, tanks may have to contend with Tectus' damage being increased by additional stacks of Accretion, but this can be handled with cooldowns, and the increase should not get too high anyway.

Tanking Tectus in the center of the fighting area is ideal, as it gives your raid more freedom to move and avoid abilities.

In addition to Tectus, the tanks will have to pick up and tank the Night-Twisted Earthwarpers and the Night-Twisted Berserkers. The Berserkers are not very problematic. The tank not currently tanking Tectus should pick them up, and DPS players should DoT it and cleave it down. The Berserkers are not a high priority. Sometimes, they will reset their threat and charge to a random raid member (this is the Raving Assault we explained earlier), but this damage is not very great. The tank will just have to pick them up again once this happens.

The bigger problem are the Earthwarpers. To begin with, these adds must be tanked facing away from the raid (and ideally, also facing away from Tectus' tank), in order to minimise the damage done by their Earthen Flechettes frontal cone attack. In addition to this, your raid will have to find a way to prevent the Gift of Earth void zones from reaching Tectus. It is possible to do this by having the tank not tanking Tectus intercept them, and this might indeed be the best way of doing it.

Positioning Challenges

Aside from the tanking concerns above, the rest of your raid has a relatively easy-to-handle set of tasks during this phase. As we mentioned before, ranged raid members and healers should be grouped up at the edge of the fighting area. Whenever a spike of earth (either from Fracture or Earthen Pillar) appears, everyone will have to avoid it. Ideally, everyone should move together in the same direction, so that the raid does not get split apart by the large Earthen Pillar spikes. Of the two abilities, Earthen Pillar is the more problematic one (since getting hit by it is fatal), but this is easy to avoid since the timing of the casts is easily predictable, namely when Tectus is at 25 Energy.

Players who are targeted by Crystalline Barrage will have to kite the cloud in an area where it will not hinder the rest of the raid. This is not particularly problematic (the cloud is very slow), but it is worth noting that the cloud always spawns from Tectus, so melee players may have to relocate.

Intercepting Gift of Earth Void Zones

As we mentioned in the tanking section above, it is probably going to prove most viable for the tank not tanking Tectus to intercept the Gift of Earth void zones. However, it may also be the case that classes with strong damage reduction cooldowns are better suited for this task. This remains to be seen.

Damaging and Killing Tectus

It is important that your raid maintains a steady flow of damage on Tectus throughout the phase. Otherwise, if all raid members switch fully to the adds when they are up, Tectus will have a chance to gain multiple stacks of Accretion, which is dangerous for his tank. Your raid will have to work out a correct balance for this to work, depending on your DPS and how must damage the tanks can handle.

Another important element is making sure that you can kill Tectus during his Tectonic Upheaval channel. On the Beta, missing one or two windows of opportunity was not a problem, but this is because the amount for which Tectus healed at the end of Tectonic Upheaval was small, and the hard enrage timer (assuming one exists) was not pressing. If either of these factors change on live servers, you may have to kill Tectus during the first Tectonic Upheaval in which it is possible to do so, depending on your raid's DPS. This is not difficult, but it is crucial that all your DPS players focus on Tectus at this time, instead of getting carried away by attacking adds.

Phase Two: Shards of Tectus

Phase Two starts when Tectus dies and the Shards of Tectus spawn. The recommended strategy for the fight is to focus DPS on one Shard, killing it, and then killing the resulting Motes before moving on to the second Shard. This means that Phase Two ends when the second Shard is killed. You will then have to fight the 4 resulting Motes of Tectus and the remaining Shard of Tectus, which we deem to be Phase Three.

From the moment that Tectus dies, the Night-Twisted adds no longer spawn until the end of the fight, so you no longer have to worry about them.

Abilities

It is important to note that having the two Shards of Tectus close to one another will cause them to deal increased damage and gain energy at an increased rate.

Strategy

We advise you to tank to Shards somewhat apart from one another (to avoid having them buff each other or gaining Energy faster), and to focus on quickly killing one Shard of Tectus by having all DPS players attack it. Depending on your raid's DPS, you should be able to kill it during the first or second Tectonic Upheaval cast. When this happens, the shard will split into 4 Motes of Tectus, which we explain below in our Phase Three section.

As you can imagine, not attacking one of the Shards of Tectus at all will cause it to gain a very high number of stacks of Accretion. This is unavoidable, but with proper healing and cooldown usage, your tank should be able to survive, especially since the Shards deal less overall damage than Tectus.

One particularly important moment in this phase is when Tectonic Upheaval casts coincide. This will result in a massive amount of raid-wide damage that your healers will have be prepared for.

Phase Three: Motes of Tectus

When the first Shard of Tectus dies, the fight reaches its most difficult moment. At this point, your raid will face one Shard of Tectus (with high Accretion stacks), and 4 Motes of Tectus.

Abilities

The Motes of Tectus use exactly the same abilities as Tectus and Shards of Tectus. The only difference is that they can be killed at any time, not only during Tectonic Upheaval.

Like the Shards of Tectus, the Motes of Tectus also buff each other to deal increased damage and regenerate Energy faster when they are in close proximity (and this also extends to them being in close proximity to the Shard of Tectus).

Strategy

At this point in the fight, your raid will be literally overwhelmed with abilities, and trying to lay down an exact strategy ahead of time is not really possible. The idea is that you should have one tank pick up the 4 Motes of Tectus, and that your raid should try to kill them as quickly as possible. It is probably not viable to out-right AoE them, but multi-DoTting and cleaving will probably be of great use here.

Despite the fact that the Motes of Tectus will buff each other by being in close proximity to one another, you do not really have any alternative to doing it this way, and their damage should remain manageable.

This will be the ideal time to use any and every possible cooldowns to increase damage and survivability. As the Motes of Tectus begin to die, the fight becomes increasingly easier. We remind you that, while these Motes of Tectus also cast Tectonic Upheaval, they can be killed at any time, so you do not have to be very careful about how you distribute your DPS.

Abilities

The Living Mountain — Tectus is unkillable as long as he is under the affects of The Living Mountain. He will periodically gain energy, with the rate of gain increasing as he loses health. The power of The Living Mountain is consumed whenever Tectus channels Tectonic Upheaval, leaving him vulnerable to shattering.

On Mythic difficulty, if any other Shards or Motes of Tectus are within 10 yds. of Tectus when he gains Accretion, they will also gain Accretion.

Earthen Pillar — Tectus raises an Earthen Pillar from the ground. After several seconds of rumbling, the pillar will erupt from the targeted location, killing any players still standing on it. Tectus uses this ability when he reaches 25 Energy.

On Mythic difficulty, Tectus also uses this ability at 50 Energy.

Crystalline Barrage — Tectus creates a cloud of crystalline blades that move towards a targeted player. Players who enter the cloud of crystalline blades suffer 19,700 (LFR), 39,300 (Normal), 55,000 (Heroic) or 160,000 (Mythic) Physical damage each second they remain in the cloud.

Tectonic Upheaval— Tectus unleashes his built up seismic instability into the earth, creating a massive series of earthquakes that each inflict 10,700 (LFR), 21,500 (Normal), 30,000 (Heroic) or 40,000 (Mythic) Nature damage to all players. If Tectus's health is depleted during Tectonic Upheaval, he will Shatter.

Hollowed Heart of the Mountain — After being shattered, Tectus' hollowed core stands again, with a fraction of his health. Hollowed cores do not gain any additional energy as their health percentage decreases.

Shard of Tectus

When shattered, the remnants of Tectus will form two Shards of Tectus. Shards of Tectus share Tectus' abilities but individually do less damage.

Shard of the Mountain — Tectus is unkillable as long as he is under the affects of Shard of the Mountain. He will periodically gain energy, with the rate of gain increasing as he loses health. The power of Shard of the Mountain is consumed whenever Tectus channels Tectonic Upheaval, leaving him vulnerable to shattering.

Tectonic Upheaval— Tectus unleashes his built up seismic instability into the earth, creating a massive series of earthquakes that each inflict 10,700 (LFR), 21,500 (Normal), 30,000 (Heroic) or 40,000 (Mythic) Nature damage to all players. If Tectus's health is depleted during Tectonic Upheaval, he will Shatter.

Earthen Pillar — Tectus raises an Earthen Pillar from the ground. After several seconds of rumbling, the pillar will erupt from the targeted location, killing any players still standing on it. Tectus uses this ability when he reaches 25 Energy.

On Mythic difficulty, Tectus also uses this ability at 50 Energy.

Hollowed Heart of the Mountain — After being shattered, the Shard of Tectus' hollowed core stands again, with a fraction of his health. Hollowed cores do not gain any additional energy as their health percentage decreases.

Mote of Tectus

When shattered, the remnants of each Shard of Tectus will form four Motes of Tectus. Motes of Tectus do not need to be shattered. Players are victorious over Tectus after they have killed all of the Motes of Tectus.

Mote of the Mountain — The Motes of Tectus can be killed outright. However, they still gain energy and will cast Tectonic Upheaval upon reaching 100 energy.

Tectonic Upheaval— Tectus unleashes his built up seismic instability into the earth, creating a massive series of earthquakes that each inflict 10,700 (LFR), 21,500 (Normal), 30,000 (Heroic) or 40,000 (Mythic) Nature damage to all players. If Tectus's health is depleted during Tectonic Upheaval, he will Shatter.

Earthen Pillar — Tectus raises an Earthen Pillar from the ground. After several seconds of rumbling, the pillar will erupt from the targeted location, killing any players still standing on it. Tectus uses this ability when he reaches 25 Energy.

On Mythic difficulty, Tectus also uses this ability at 50 Energy.

Night-Twisted Pale

While Tectus is fully formed, Night-Twisted Pale will attempt to enter the fight, empowering Tectus and attacking players.

In Mythic difficulty, Night-Twisted Pale continue to attack after Tectus is shattered.

Gift of Earth — Creates a swirling vortex of earth in an attempt to empower Tectus. If the vortex reaches Tectus, he will gain 10 stacks of Accretion. Players may intercept the vortex - if they do, they suffer 91,000 (LFR), 182,000 (Normal), 254,500 (Heroic) or 343,500 (Mythic) Physical damage and are afflicted with Petrification.

Night-Twisted Earthwarper

Gift of Earth— Creates a swirling vortex of earth in an attempt to empower Tectus. If the vortex reaches Tectus, he will gain 10 stacks of Accretion. Players may intercept the vortex - if they do, they suffer 91,000 (LFR), 182,000 (Normal), 254,500 (Heroic) or 343,500 (Mythic) Physical damage and are afflicted with Petrification.

Petrification— A player's skin begins to turn to stone after intercepting the Gift of Earth. A petrified player's movement speed is reduced by 2%, and Tectus will absorb their petrification whenever he makes a melee attack against them, granting him stacks of Accretion and healing him.

Earthen Flechettes— Raises Earthen Flechettes from the ground, inflicting 31,250 (LFR), 125,000 (Normal), 175,000 (Heroic) or 236,500 (Mythic) Nature damage to all enemies within a cone in front of the caster.

Night-Twisted Berserker

Raving Assault — The Berserker is afflicted with temporary insanity, forgetting their current target, clearing all threat, and dashing towards a random player. The Berserker inflicts 26,450 (LFR), 52,850 (Normal), 74,000 (Heroic) or 99,000 (Mythic) Physical damage to targets caught in the path of the dash.

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